The CHAMP-AV IV's Quad 1.25 GHz Freescale 7448 processors increase complex FFT processing speed by as much as 300% Leesburg, VA - July 5, 2006 - The signal processing performance of the CHAMP-AV IV VME quad PowerPC DSP engine has been improved with the addition of FreeScale's most advanced 1.25 GHz MPC7447/7448 PowerPC processors. Test results, comparing the performance of the new quad 1.25 GHz 7448-based version of the CHAMP-AV IV with the previous 1GHz 7447-based version, show greatly increased speed for signal processing functions.
For example, the increased clock speed of the 1.25 GHz 7448 version results in 25% faster processing speeds for classic 1K point Complex FFT operations, compared to the earlier 1GHz 7447. The 1.25 GHz 7448 also features a larger 1Mbyte L2 cache enabling it to accommodate much larger datasets compared to the 7447 which has a 512 Kbyte L2 cache. Testing showed that the 7448's larger L2 cache results in more than a 3x increase in processing speed for 64K point Complex FFT operations.
"The CHAMP-AV IV continues to track the highest performance processing technology available for the military and aerospace COTS systems market," said Lynn Patterson, vice president and general manager of Modular Solutions, Curtiss-Wright. "This VME64x Altivec engine represents the breadth of design and platform expertise within Curtiss-Wright and sets a new standard for high performance signal processing in VME COTS systems." The 6U VME64x CHAMP-AV IV drives demanding DSP applications with up to 40 GFLOPs of peak computational power. Each of the board's four processing nodes consists of a 1.25 GHz 7447A/7448 processor, up to 512MB DDR-250 SDRAM (2GB/sec), and dual 100 MHz 64-bit PCI-X interfaces.
This AltiVec-based DSP engine also features Curtiss-Wright's industry leading QuadFlow architecture. To provide maximum multi-processing application performance, the board's QuadFlow architecture supports four simultaneous node-to-node transfers to deliver a total data flow of 3.2GB/sec peak. Each of the four nodes transfers data to adjacent nodes at speeds up to 1.6GB/sec peak.
Each processing node of the CHAMP-AV IV is provided with a Gigabit Ethernet connection. System expansion on the CHAMP-AV IV is supported with two PCI-X interface compatible PMC sites. Each expansion site supports the latest PCI-X specification, and enables 64-bit/100MHz operation, while retaining compatibility with legacy 33MHz and 66MHz PMC modules.
The CHAMP-AV IV's total 1.6 Gbyte/sec peak of I/O bandwidth provides the throughput required to match the DSP processing power of its quad 1.25 GHz 7447A/7448 processors. Both of the PMC sites on the Champ-AV IV support Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) to the backplane connectors to enable the use of high-speed serial switched interconnect technologies such as Curtiss-Wright's StarFabric-based StarLink PMC and Fibre Channel PMC modules. The board provides high-speed connections to the backplane to eliminate the need for front-panel wiring harnesses and delivers improved system maintainability.
Software Support
The CHAMP-AV IV is supported with Curtiss-Wright's Inter-Processor Communication Library (IPC). IPC greatly eases the task of building scalable multi-processor software. Operating system support for the CHAMP-AV IV includes board support packages (BSPs) for Wind River's VxWorks/Tornado and Green Hill's INTEGRITY. A Linux software development suite is available from Curtiss-Wright. Digital signal processing library support includes SSSL, a DSP function library optimized for AltiVec.
The CHAMP-AV IV is available in a range of ruggedization levels, including air- and conduction-cooled configurations.
About Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing is the industry's most comprehensive and experienced single source for embedded solutions, ranging from Processing, Subsystems, Data Communication, DSP, and Video & Graphics to the most advanced board level components and fully integrated custom systems. The Embedded Computing group serves the defense, aerospace, commercial and industrial markets and is part of Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc. About Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Curtiss-Wright Controls is the motion control segment of Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW).
With manufacturing facilities around the world, Curtiss-Wright Controls is a leading technology-based organization providing niche motion control products, subsystems and services internationally for the aerospace and defense markets.
